[FoxWeather] Tropical Storm Milton formed in the Gulf of Mexico Saturday, eventually eyeing Florida as a dangerous hurricane with damaging winds, life-threatening storm surge and torrential rain.
#1
Im a bug in kinda guy. Sister and clan were caught in WNC. Lost power, water, phone and cell was intermittent. I was thinking a police scanner is now on my list. Maybe a ham radio, looking into that.
#2
Some things I got lazy about.
* Alternative Power supply, is not just a house generator.
* Internet Connectivity, looking into SAT links again
* Emergency Vehicle fuel Storage non-ethanol with stabilizer
* Protective Water shield tarps
* Printed Road maps and alternative routes to avoid populations
* Canned meals, not just food items.
* Camper stove and enough fuel to last 10 days.
* 12 Ga warning rounds (rock salt and/or florescent plastic pellets)
* Drinking Water bottles
* Vehicle Power inverter 12vdc to 120vac 5 amp
* Vehicle 12vdc powered ice box for med's
* Purchase extra yard fence solar power lights. They make a good night light for the inside after dark.
* Chainsaws do break blades and need more fuel.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/06/2024 15:33 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Check your state laws, warning shots are usually illegal. If you are not in reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm, you should not be using a lethal weapon in an non-lethal situation.
[ShabelleMedia] Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Somalia has approximately doubled in size over the past year, the chief of U.S. Africa Command told VOA. Guess somebody's been asleep at the switch.
Comfy in Germany much?
"I am concerned about the northern part of Somalia and ISIS growing in numbers," AFRICOM commander Gen. Michael Langley said in an exclusive interview, using an acronym for the terror group.
Langley declined to provide the United States’ estimate of how many Islamic State fighters are in Somalia, other than to say that the group’s had grown about "twofold" in the past year. Previous estimates have put the number of Islamic State fighters in north Somalia at about 200 fighters.
The AFRICOM commander also warned about the possibility of Islamic State increasing its foreign fighter presence in Somalia.
Somali Brigadier General Abdi Hassan Hussein, the former intelligence and police commander of Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... , where Islamic State is located in the north, told VOA earlier this year that the number of Islamic State imported muscle there alone is estimated in the hundreds. This figure has yet to be confirmed by local authorities.
Good to know.
A U.S. official told VOA in June that Abdulqadir Mumin, the leader of Islamic State in Somalia, had been targeted in an American Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in May. Mumin appears to have survived the strike.
Bummer. Foiled again.
Asked whether Mumin was now the global leader of IS, Langley said the U.S. must take those reports as "credible."
He’s the international Number 1? That suggests a certain lack of depth — or possibly breadth — in the international ISIS leadership talent pool.
"ISIS professes that. Sometimes you’ve got to take that seriously," he said.
AL-SHABAAB ... the personification of Somali state failure... The increase in Islamic State fighters in northern Somalia comes as the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab has exploited diplomatic disagreements between Somalia and Æthiopia to raise its recruitment numbers.
Landlocked Æthiopia and Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland ...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells.... region signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year to use its Red Sea port of Berbera, a deal that Somalia has rejected. Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on Friday accused Æthiopia, before the U.N. General Assembly, of actions that "flagrantly violate" Somalia’s territorial integrity.
"The have used that (dispute) to their advantage," Langley told VOA.
Al-Shabaab has been back at high numbers of between 12,000 to 13,000 fighters due to strong financing and heavy recruitment efforts, senior defense officials told VOA in June.
Al-Shabaab has been back at high numbers of between 12,000 to 13,000 fighters due to strong financing and heavy recruitment efforts, senior defense officials told VOA in June.
The political rift has bled into counter-terror cooperation between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu, with Langley telling VOA that Somali operations with Æthiopia have been "limited."
"Time will tell if they can settle their differences and coalesce into a force that’s very effective, because when they do work together, they’re very, very effective at clearing out al-Shabaab.’’
Al-Shabaab has continued attacks on civilians, including in the Mogadishu area. The terror group grabbed credit for a gun attack and suicide kaboom that killed at least 32 people in August on a popular beach in the Somalia’s capital. The group is also suspected to have carried out two deadly bombings on Saturday, one in Middle Shabelle region and another about one kilometer from the president’s office.
Al-Shabaab has suffered defeats from the South West State of Somalia down to the Juba River Valley and has sought to reset and counter-attack in those areas.
However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... in central Somalia, al-Shabaab has reversed gains made by Somali forces over the last two years as government forces failed to hold the terrain they had retaken, according to senior U.S. defense officials.
Unexpectedly.
"We need a credible holding force, because sometimes shadow governments of al-Shabaab try to re-insert themselves back in that region and try to influence some of the local leaders," Langley said.
He said the time following the clearing and liberating of a region is a "very fragile period" where Somalia and partners like the U.S. Agency for International Development can initiate local services that will increase the population’s faith in the federal government.
"If they can’t sustain that because they’re moving to the next region or next district, it ebbs," he said, adding that U.S. training was currently focused on helping Somali forces hold liberated terrain.
The Somali government has pointed to the El Dheer and Harardhere areas as evidence that some liberated terrain in central Somalia remains under government control.
ATMIS TRANSITION
Later this year, the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia will leave the country after nearly two years of helping Somalia fight al-Shabaab Lions of Islam and will be replaced in 2025 by a new African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia. Which forces will be comprised in the mission is still being worked out by the African Union and the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Langley ruled out any U.S. role in the transition, saying American forces would maintain only their advise-and-assist mission.
"Our piece of enabling is not our boots on the ground. We’re there to advise and assist, and assist in their training, but the fight is theirs," he told VOA.
Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s
In addition to Islamic State and al-Shabaab, Somalia also must worry about Iranian-backed Houthi snuffies in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , just north of Somalia across the Gulf of Aden, whom Langley says have "aspirations" to collaborate with al-Shabaab.
"We’re concerned, and we’re closely watching that, because this can turn into a bad neighborhood real quick," he said.
Should the Houthis and al-Shabaab put pressure on the Gulf of Aden from opposite sides, Langley worries that squeezing this strategic choke point could further hinder the free flow of commerce and affect the global economy.
Should the Houthis and al-Shabaab put pressure on the Gulf of Aden from opposite sides, Langley worries that squeezing this strategic choke point could further hinder the free flow of commerce and affect the global economy. And analysts fear that Houthis could insert more sophisticated weapons into the fight for Somalia.
Houthi snuffies have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... started in October, seizing one, sinking two and killing at least four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
Blind as bats, all of them. And they shoot off missiles like a girl. And not a boss girl, either.
The Houthi krazed killer campaign began after Israel launched a retaliatory attack against Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack, and the Houthis claim they are acting in solidarity with Paleostinians during the war.
[AmericanThinker] Recall the adage to be careful of what you wish for... you might just get it. This sage advice is currently being demonstrated in the decline of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) crusade. Scarcely a week passes without major corporations and universities ending their DEI programs but unfortunately, these cutbacks hardly mean the end of DEI; it may even get worse. The reality is that the thousands of newly unemployed functionaries plus countless would-be DEI commissars are not about to disappear.
Particularly worrying that DEI functionaries are disproportionately middle-class African Americans, and unlike politically voiceless Kentucky coal miners now unemployed due to the push for green energy, they will not quietly go out to pasture on government doles.
Now for the "you may get what you wish for" bad news: the federal government is likely to pick up the slack, and the armies of now unemployed DEI functionaries and future racial preference experts will undoubtedly find a home in the vast federal bureaucracy. In a sense, this recalls the Great Depression, when the federal government served as the employer of last resort. Now, however, rather than build the next Hoover dam, these new hires will push Washington to ensure that that the federal workforce "looks like America" while prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion.
The federal government has already gone on a DEI hiring spree. On the first day of his administration (January 20th, 2021), Biden issued an Executive Order, to "...Advance Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government."
The Executive Order hardly minces words. It began with, "Equal opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy, and our diversity is one of our country’s greatest strengths. But for too many, the American Dream remains out of reach." Nor is this effort just minor tinkering -- "Our Nation deserves an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the opportunities and challenges that we face." It continues, "It is therefore the policy of my Administration that the Federal Government should pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality." Moreover, this will be transformation on a grand scale to include, "Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality." IMO, considering their level of competence, it would've been cheaper to pay all these people to stay at home.
The Biden/Harris administration then quickly issued a second Executive Order reaffirming the initial command: "As the Nation’s largest employer, the Federal Government must be a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, where all employees are treated with dignity and respect. Accordingly, the Federal Government must strengthen its ability to recruit, hire, develop, promote, and retain our Nation’s talent and remove barriers to equal opportunity."
This DEI mandate differs fundamentally from what occurs in private industry and higher education. Harley Davidson motorcycles may try to market its product to gays but if homophobic bikers decide to buy Hondas instead, the society-wide damage is minimal -- fewer Harleys will be sold and. critically, Harley Davidson cannot punish those who refuse to buy their product.
But the federal government can legally impose its policies. You can buy whatever motorcycle you wish, but if you are going to build a highway involving federal funds and refuse to hire the bureaucratically determined employees from "under-served populations," you will be denied the contract. But if you do get the contract but still reject government hiring mandates or misrepresent your new hires, you can be fined and, in extreme cases, imprisoned. Federal government DEI thus differs fundamentally from what occurs in the private sector and higher education, and it is hard to exaggerate the damage that can be inflicted by government officials embracing the DEI agenda.
...How can the DEI industry be dismantled? Or will we just shift the woke bodies from the private sector to the government? That many in this industry are well-educated African Americans only compounds the obstacles. In principle, this is no different from the job obsolescence endemic in the American economy ("creative destruction"). Remember the armies of typists, file clerks and telephone operators? Entire industries such as warehousing, auto manufacturing, and even the U.S. Postal Service have drastically reduced their workforce. Today’s DEI industry faces a similar crisis.
There is, however, some potential good news. The displaced worker problem is an old one, and government programs exist to retrain them. In 2016 Hillary Clinton suggested that former coal miners be taught coding to soften the pain of banning fossil fuels. Perhaps the federal government should adopt a similar program for surplus DEI functionaries. Far better than writing guidelines for how first responders must not ignore those drowning due to their race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual preferences. How likely is that?
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
10/06/2024 02:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
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#1
They can learn to code.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/06/2024 9:30 Comments ||
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#2
Or will we just shift the woke bodies from the private sector to the government?
Actually, the government needs to be drastically downsized. The incompetence demonstrated means they don't need more people. At least give them the excuse that they can't really prioritize what to do by reductions starting at 10% in a slice that hits the management structure at the top to middle.
[FoxNews] Media attacked Bush over Katrina, but ignores Biden-Harris failures as Americans suffer.
For five days, the U.S. Army’s helicopters stayed on the ground.
The Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene has been slow, weak, and deadly—but, except for Fox News, you wouldn’t know it from the major media.
Hurricane Helene made landfall on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 11:10 p.m.
The following Thursday, a reporter asked President Joe Biden about the storm zone. Biden responded, "Oh, storm zone? I don’t know which storm you’re talking about…" Biden then recovered and claimed, "They are getting what they need, and they are very happy across the board."
The day before, five full days after the storm dumped up to 30 inches of rain in some mountain locations, Biden ordered 1,000 active-duty troops to provide assistance with 22 helicopters as well as tactical vehicles from Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), some 250 miles east of hard-hit Asheville, N.C.
There are about 50 utility helicopters in the 82d Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Liberty. The military installation in Fayetteville, the U.S. Army’s largest, has almost 100,000 active-duty and reserve soldiers available for presidential call-up—so, Biden sent 1% of Fort Liberty’s personnel and less than half of the base’s much-needed helicopter inventory.
Meanwhile, the federal government’s emergency management arm, FEMA, warned it’s out of money because it has spent $1.4 billion on aid to "sanctuary cities" swamped with illegal aliens and mostly fake asylum seekers. FEMA said it sent 150 generators to the stricken region. But there are at least double that number of generators available for purchase within an hour’s drive of any typical city.
Displaced citizens in the Appalachian region hit by Helene are at risk of illness due to contaminated water—and in danger from human traffickers who prey upon the confused, weak, and vulnerable. The hundreds of military police from Fort Liberty’s 503rd Military Police Battalion and the 82nd MP Company could prove a powerful deterrent in shelters—if they were activated.
So, how does the Biden-Harris disaster response compare to other recent events? The media and Democrats heaped scorn on President George H.W. Bush’s federal response to the L.A. Riots in 1992 and then again on President George W. Bush’s Hurricane Katrina actions in 2005.
I was a California Army National Guard captain during the 1992 L.A. Riots. Within three days, we had 10,000 Guard soldiers on the ground, quelling looting and arson. Rioting started the evening of April 29. The following evening, a National Guard MP company was on the scene. The next day, 4,000 Guard soldiers were in the city and President Bush ordered active-duty Army and Marine forces into action as well as 1,000 federal law enforcement officers. By May 2, there were 10,000 Guard members and 3,500 active-duty soldiers and Marines keeping order in L.A.
So, the elder Bush ordered 3,500 active-duty personnel into L.A. three days into the emergency while Biden took five days to decide to send 1,000 soldiers to help.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, around 4:30 a.m. At Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s request, President George W. Bush had issued an emergency declaration on Saturday, Aug. 27, two days before landfall. Within a day of impact, U.S. Coast Guard helicopters were already working, rescuing some 350 people from rooftops. Bush viewed the devastation from the air on Aug. 31 and was roundly criticized for flying over, rather than seeing things on the ground. On Sept. 1, Bush asked Gov. Blanco to allow a federal takeover of the relief efforts, which by then included 15,256 Guard members expected to grow to more than 40,000 personnel from neighboring states.
Bush visited the scene of the disaster only two days after landfall. Two days after Helene, Biden was on the beach in Delaware, "commanding," as he claimed, with two hours of phone calls. Vice President Kamala Harris was fundraising on the West Coast.
The U.S. military’s chain of command for this disaster runs from Biden to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to the commander of the U.S. Northern Command. Biden’s slow and confused response to Hurricane Helene—taking two more days to come to grips with the crisis than did his two recent predecessors—speaks of a president who is out of touch and not up to the job.
The Biden-Harris administration’s sluggish and half-hearted disaster response has put hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk in Helene’s swath of destruction. Biden’s lackluster engagement in the most powerful office on the planet puts the entire nation in peril as the world spirals into chaos while Harris focuses her time and energy on running to replace Biden while hiding from the media.
[BenarNews] As Election Day nears, analysts assess how each candidate’s administration could affect security cooperation, territorial claims.
The outcome of next month’s presidential election in the United States could significantly influence Manila’s defense alliance with Washington and its territorial claims in the South China Sea, observers said.
With Kamala Harris who got her start in politix between former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's' knees and Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... jostling to become the next occupant of the Oval Office, some analysts interviewed by BenarNews shared their perspectives on how a new administration in Washington might shape U.S.-Philippines relations and Manila’s territorial claim in the hotly disputed waterway.
A Harris administration would likely continue America’s robust support for the Philippines under a 73-year-old defense pact, analysts said, while a second Trump presidency could introduce uncertainty and what some observers described as a more "transactional" approach to bilateral relations.
On the 2024 campaign trail, neither of the candidates have articulated or talked directly about what their policy toward the South China Sea would be, if elected president, and have largely focused their speeches at rallies on the economy and other domestic issues. But in the past, both contenders have addressed the hot-button geopolitical issue of the South China Sea during official visits to the Philippines.
THE OUTLOOK UNDER A HARRIS PRESIDENCY
If Harris, the current U.S. vice president and Democratic Party nominee for the presidency, wins in November, expect to see her carry on with the Biden administration’s policies on the Philippines and South China Sea, some analysts told BenarNews.
"A Kamala Harris administration can be expected to give full support to the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty and pursue continuity in the Biden administration’s national security and national defense strategies," said Carlyle Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales Canberra.
Signed in 1951, the treaty calls on both Manila and Washington to aid each other militarily in case either country is attacked by an external power. U.S. military leaders have said they are prepared to assist the Philippines if it invoked the treaty amid threats from other nations.
Amid tensions between rival claimants Beijing and Manila over the South China Sea, the Biden administration has indicated that it would help the Philippines defend itself in the event of an armed attack "anywhere in the South China Sea."
"A Harris administration would likely approve, subject to concurrence by the Philippines, the deployment of equipment, weapons and personnel to support the Philippines in a crisis involving China at Second Thomas Shoal and/or Sabina Shoal," Thayer told BenarNews via email.
Tense standoffs between the rival territorial claimants have occurred lately in disputed waters even after both sides agreed in July to dial down tensions in the South China Sea.
"If Kamala Harris comes to power, there will be a continuity of Biden’s foreign policy and she herself has advocated closer ties with Manila and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations," said Kumari Mansi, deputy director at the Indo-Pacific Studies Center, a policy think-tank.
"She has been the highest-ranking American official to visit the [Philippine] province of Palawan, a province facing the [South China Sea] amid tensions between Manila and Beijing," Mansi told BenarNews on Tuesday.
During a November 2022 visit to Palawan, an island on the frontline of the Philippines’ maritime dispute with China, Harris hit out at Beijing over its coercive tactics in the South China Sea and reiterated Washington’s full military support for Manila. Her office also announced millions of dollars in aid for Philippine maritime law enforcement agencies.
"The United States and the broader international community have a profound stake in the future of this region. America’s prosperity relies on the billions of dollars [of commerce] that flow through these waters every day, and we are proud to work with you in your mission," the U.S. vice president said then during a speech in Palawan aboard a Philippine Coast Guard ship.
"As an ally, the United States stands with the Philippines in the face of intimidation and coercion in the South China Sea."
On that trip to the Philippines, Harris also visited President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The two have met six times in their government roles and have formed a strong bond, said Mansi, an assistant professor at Amity University in India.
"This will certainly be reflected in American foreign policy toward the Philippines under Harris," he said.
Harris became the uncontested presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket after President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. The man who made Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter look competent, if only by comparison.... bowed out from the electoral race in July over concerns about his health and whether he could defeat Trump a second time at the polls.
THE OUTLOOK UNDER ANOTHER TRUMP PRESIDENCY
Trump, the Republican Party nominee for president, who was previously elected to the White House in 2016, traveled to Manila as U.S. commander-in-chief in November 2017. During that visit, he reaffirmed Washington’s defense alliance with Manila and support for a free and open Asia-Pacific.
Trump also hailed his "great relationship" with then-Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte.
Then-Philippine presidential front man Harry Roque later described President Trump’s meeting with Duterte as "very warm and very friendly."
Should Trump return to the White House for another term, he will likely maintain strong ties between the U.S. and the Philippines, said Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, Manila’s envoy to Washington since 2017 — the year Trump took office.
"I don’t see any risk at all. We’ve had ups and downs with the U.S., but it has always endured," Romualdez told Bloomberg News in July, adding he expected that a Trump administration would continue with the current U.S. strategy of countering China’s activities in the South China Sea.
Still, some analysts predicted that a second Trump presidency could bring uncertainty to the alliance between the two nations and Manila’s claim in the South China Sea.
"What is worrisome is that Trump, during his first administration, seemed to be uninterested in the U.S.-Philippines alliance," wrote Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at RAND Corp., a policy think-tank headquartered in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,.
"Perhaps the biggest loser in Southeast Asia from a second Trump administration would be the Philippines ... [which] has expanded and deepened its security alliance with Washington to help counter Beijing’s rising gray-zone tactics in the South China Sea."
"Without U.S. support, the Philippines would be mostly left to fend for itself against the growing Chinese encroachments into its exclusive economic zone," Grossman added.
Other analysts shared similar views.
"A Trump administration would be entirely unpredictable," Thayer said. "He has disdain for tiny rocks and islets and no appreciation of maritime strategy.
"[I]f tensions between China and the Philippines rise, increasing the threat of armed conflict, Trump is likely to personally intervene and conduct summit diplomacy with President Xi Jinping to seek a transactional solution," he said. "Trump will be inclined to seek a quid pro quo with China over the head of the Philippines."
A ’CORNERSTONE’ ALLIANCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Meanwhile,
...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results... one analyst agreed that a new administration under Trump could cast doubt on the U.S. commitment — or it could play out the opposite way, bringing greater defense cooperation between Washington and Manila.
"A Trump administration might adopt a transactional approach, which could revisit past criticisms of allies ’free-riding,’ casting doubt on the U.S. commitment under the MDT and straining relations," said Lynn Kuok, the Lee Kuan Yew chair for Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution, using an acronym for the 1951 defense treaty.
"But a hawkish Republican administration could also double down on defending the Philippines," she wrote.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...46th president of the U.S. The man who made Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter look competent, if only by comparison....
